Manuel Rubio Sánchez
Director José Luis Sánchez Maldonado
Countries Spain
Duration 77 min
Synopsis
The centrepiece of the story is Manuel Rubio Sanchez, better known by Santo Manuel, a popular Holy Man who served in a hut located in the heart of the Natural Park of La Sierra de Huetor, 20 kilometres away from the city of Granada. This Holy Man has the highest number of cures in Spain and, spite of his death in 2001, dozens of followers keep visiting his hut everyday. Manuel is the common element of the three characters whose stories we develop: On the one hand Lourdes, our leading role. A young woman who lived for 13 years, from 16 to 29 years old, leaving a normal student life to live in the hut and help Manuel. This was done by request of Manuel and the consent of her parents. After spending her youth in the hut, Lourdes is now trying to find out her place in the society but she still keeps the memory of the hut on her mind. Our second role is Maria, a 72 years old woman who was one of the persons in charge of cooking, feeding a minimum of 30 persons everyday. These people were patiently waiting to be seen by Manuel. Maria left everything in her life to help Manuel, it even caused the leaving of her daughter to live with her aunt and uncle. Currently, Maria, with health problems, has hired an Ecuadorian carer and her daughter is living in Barcelona hearing nothing from her mother. Finally, we meet Angel, a 75 years old man who knew Manuel when they both were young. They worked together during the pruning season just before Manuel went into seclusion to cure people after the Divine Mandate. Angel, in spite of suffering asthma, is faithful to his habit of walking up very long slopes to the Cemetery of Huetor Santillán, where Manuel is buried, everyday. He spends long meditation moments up there. While we are developing all these characters we will witness their daily routines and how the hut works, based on cured-by-the-Holy-Man persons and archive recordings from Manuel himself.
The centrepiece of the story is Manuel Rubio Sanchez, better known by Santo Manuel, a popular Holy Man who served in a hut located in the heart of the Natural Park of La Sierra de Huetor, 20 kilometres away from the city of Granada. This Holy Man has the highest number of cures in Spain and, spite of his death in 2001, dozens of followers keep visiting his hut everyday. Manuel is the common element of the three characters whose stories we develop: On the one hand Lourdes, our leading role. A young woman who lived for 13 years, from 16 to 29 years old, leaving a normal student life to live in the hut and help Manuel. This was done by request of Manuel and the consent of her parents. After spending her youth in the hut, Lourdes is now trying to find out her place in the society but she still keeps the memory of the hut on her mind. Our second role is Maria, a 72 years old woman who was one of the persons in charge of cooking, feeding a minimum of 30 persons everyday. These people were patiently waiting to be seen by Manuel. Maria left everything in her life to help Manuel, it even caused the leaving of her daughter to live with her aunt and uncle. Currently, Maria, with health problems, has hired an Ecuadorian carer and her daughter is living in Barcelona hearing nothing from her mother. Finally, we meet Angel, a 75 years old man who knew Manuel when they both were young. They worked together during the pruning season just before Manuel went into seclusion to cure people after the Divine Mandate. Angel, in spite of suffering asthma, is faithful to his habit of walking up very long slopes to the Cemetery of Huetor Santillán, where Manuel is buried, everyday. He spends long meditation moments up there. While we are developing all these characters we will witness their daily routines and how the hut works, based on cured-by-the-Holy-Man persons and archive recordings from Manuel himself.